This fight is for the Strikeforce light heavyweight title. Ruiz holds a win over champ Southworth, which is always a nice mental edge for a challenger. Apparently Ruiz won the first matchup on cuts which Southworth is using to suggest that the victory was insignificant. Southworth beat Vernon ‘Tiger’ White for the title.

ROUND ONE:

Southworth has dominated since the outset, almost immediately taking Ruiz down. Ruiz deftly escapes from a rear naked choke and now tries to pass guard on Southworth. Southworth’s face is showing some minor damage–could have been from a clash of heads during the takedown. Actually, the third guy on the HDNet announce team just informed us that the cut occured in a standup exchange from punches. Southworth pulls an armbar out of his hat from the bottom and has it in deep. Ruiz escapes nicely and throws in a couple of knees to the body. Southworth toys with the idea of a triangle punch as the round ends. Southworth takes the first round based on a couple of takedowns and a submission attempt. They’re going to work on the cut, and now that they’ve got the closeup it doesn’t look as bad.

The announce team on camera now and here’s a couple of bad dudes side by side as Cung Le sits down by Bas Rutten. Southworth gets round one 10-9

ROUND TWO:

Ruiz has turned the tables so far, pushing Southworth around the cage. He may have demonstrated some physicality, but at the end of all of that Southworth gets another easy takedown. He’s got half guard right now and for the moment isn’t doing anything fancy–just mauling Ruiz on the ground. Ruiz explodes out of the takedown and now all of a sudden he’s in Southworth’s guard. Rice informs us that CompuStrike numbers indicating a minimal amount of strikes in this round and as if on cue the crowd starts to boo. Southworth tries another arm bar from the bottom, Ruiz reverses and now the champ is in full guard. Southworth must have said something amusing as Ruiz appears to almost be laughing. Slower paced round, and a closer round but we’ll give it to Southworth 10-9, giving him the lead 20-18

Cung Le doing a pretty good job on commentary–he’s a little monotone and you can tell that he’s out of his comfort zone but overall sounds good. With some work he could have a broadcasting career down the road–of course while you’re breaking opponents’ arms with kicks like he did to Frank Shamrock you don’t need to worry about your future career plans at the moment.

ROUND THREE:

Ruiz gets the takedown to start round three and it almost appears that at least to this point Southworth is taking the round off. Hard to blame him if this is the case, as he looked a little winded near the end of three and its a five round bout. Ruiz needs to do more to press the action–he’s a tough guy and fighting a competitive fight but the way things are going Southworth can keep doing what he’s going and win the decision. Fans start to boo a bit, Southworth gets full mount and Ruiz gives up his back. Ruiz’s nose now bleeding pretty badly–it may be broken. Southworth was throwing in punches from the back during the previous exchange it it may have happened there. Haven’t seen a clear shot of Ruiz’s face yet but he’s bleeding all over the place. He’s on top against the cage now and fighting at a more frenzied pace, likely due to the bloodflow. Another takedown by Southworth. Probably won’t get to see Ruiz’s nose until between rounds. Closer round, and frankly a pretty dull round. With 2 takedowns to one in the third and a busted up nose we’ll give it to Southworth. 30-27 the champ leads the fight.

Haven’t been able to see Ruiz’s nose yet–they just showed the replay and it appeared to be a punch or an elbow strike that did the damage. Southworth popped Ruiz’s beak and he rolled over giving up his back to protect himself. CompuStrike numbers are close, with the exception of takedowns that give Southworth a 5-2 edge.

ROUND FOUR:

Ruiz comes out looking to strike. His corner did a nice job on the nose for now as its not bleeding at the moment–considering how much it was bleeding late in the round that’s pretty impressive work. Another takedown by Southworth. Ruiz trying to escape and is in danger of giving up his back in the process. He’s avoided danger for a moment, turtling up against the side of the cage and then standing up. Rutten making a very valid point that while it looks like nothing is happening this type of groundfighting is very draining physically. Ruiz’s nose bleeding again, Southworth gets another takedown and Ruiz gets another nice escape. Southworth hasn’t been able to do much damage on the takedowns. Southworth with a knee strike as the fighters exchange strikes in the center. Cung Le notes that Ruiz is looking to load up a big punch. Southworth simultaneously gets a takedown and locks in a kimura. Rutten excitedly telling Southworth what he needs to do, displaying his ungodly knowledge of the fight game. Rutten cracks a lot of jokes, but when it comes to the technical knowledge of fighting the guy is unreal. Pretty much every near submission that occurs Rutten has a half dozen recommendations on how to finish and/or defend the move. Uneventful round, but based on the takedown dominance it goes to Southworth 40-36 he leads the fight.

ROUND FIVE:

Southworth gets another takedown and moves into side control. Rice makes a point that in a Cung Lee or Rutten fight there would be more strikes in two rounds than this entire fight, to which Bas reiterates his very valid point about how much more draining this type of fight is than a slugfest. Fans aren’t happy, but Rutten defending Southworth’s tactics suggesting that he ‘fights a smart fight and does what he needs to win’. He’s a very solid, powerful groundfighter at the weight so its hard to argue with Bas on this. Southworth in side control now trying to work an armbar or kimura and the submission computer in Rutten’s brain starts to hum again. He can’t get the submission and with just over a minute left he may be content to stay in mount and pound on his opponent. Southworth now takes Ruiz’s back and stretches out his arm but he can’t finish it. Fight draws to a close, fans won’t be happy with a groundfighting war of attrition. Actually, they give it a polite smattering of applause–San Jose fans are some of the most knowledgeable in the country so its not surprising–as the fight ends. 10-9 50-45

48-47, 49-46, 50-45 Southworth wins by unanimous decision. Not sure how you can rationalize two rounds for Ruiz–it was the sort of fight where he put up a good account throughout but didn’t really do anything on offense to give him the rounds.

BOBBY SOUTHWORTH WINS BY UNANIMOUS DECISION

Southworth puts over his opponent as a tough, competitive fighter. Southworth in a very classy move seems less interested in talking about himself as he is showing respect to his opponent. Southworth asks the crowd to give Ruiz a round of applause, but the crowd is so bummed about the type of the fight that they pretty much ignore him.

Cung Le is going to Berlin to film a movie with Dennis Quaid directed by Christian Albert. Cool deal for him….